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Randy Minton (guest)
Professor , GA:

Colin Powell is clearly not a Republican. True Republicans like true Democrats vote for their party, even in times when they might feel the other party has a superior candidate. Clearly between liberal maximus (Mr. Obama) and liberal whackedoutasmuch (Mr. McCain), Obama was the superior candidate; however, it is not merely the candidate for whom people vote. They vote for judges, abortion limits, and a host of other things the average American does not pay particular attention to, such as the right for unions to hold democratic elections.
Mr. Powell is clearly an independent, the category most would fall into if they ever took the time to look at a particular party's platform. On the other hand, true party faithful are the dogmatic, not the will-o'-the-wisps. Mr. Powell, by virtue of his announced vote disqualified himself as a Republican by his actions, irrespective of any rhetorical claim to the contrary.

Carl Owen (guest)
Mailman , OK:

Does language matter? Over twenty years ago the language of politics changed. Newt Gingrich and Frank Luntz radically altered the way political parties speak. To bolster their ideas and denigrate the Democrats they urged and taught and preached the use of inflammatory and deceptive rhetoric. According to Newt if they thought a Democratic proposal was bad they weren't to use "bad". It was to become "horrendous". Mild adjectives were out, strong ones in. They inflated the tone without altering the content. Then they took it to the next step and began using focus groups like any good advertising agency. No more would they approach subjects head on but at the oblique. They began to disguise their positions and falsely relabel their opponents ideas. And for a time it worked. But in those days their positions and beliefs were new and untested. Today they use the same techniques but without any fresh ideas or positions. Just empty words trying desperately to sell the same, stale unbought merchandise sitting on the shelves gathering dust. As I tell my conservative friends and yes I have them, pure and loud won't win any new elections. Two words, "Reagan Democrats". Ronald Reagan didn't win elections by excluding people, he won them by including folks, including Democrats. Apparently those who worship at the shrine of St. Ronnie don't understand their patron saint or how he worked his miracles.

Jonathan Wolfman (guest)
Writer/Editor , MD:

TWO MEMORIAL DAY THOUGHTS:
A) Among the more positive developments in recent years has been the slow yet steady erosion of the far too-long accepted idea that only conservatives can be, deep down, genuine patriots. The sense Americans had (and that many still have) that the Right somehow naturally corners the market on what is genuinely American, particularly as to foreign policy and to the military, has begun to give way to more balanced thinking. Just one event that suggests such a trend was the fact that when, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, twenty or so retired high-ranking military men and women stood up for and spoke on behalf of Barack Obama, there was no general cry of "foul". Other Democratic candidates, of course, have had their ex-military backers but not in these numbers, not this prominently,and not at a convention. It's all the more remarkable, too, that this didn't draw the outrage and/or mockery it might have in the past given the contemporaneous attempt to portray Mr. Obama as both subversive and foreign.
B) I think one reason many in my generation--I'm 58-- have been slow to recognize that the military has a proper and valid role...why, for example, many of us did not recognize Afghanistan as a necessary war until, perhaps, recently, is because none of us can recall living through a necessary or just war. None of us has a personal memory of the Second War, even Boomers in their sixties. Korea, Vietnam, Laos, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, so much...provided us with little basis to understand why Afghanistan is as important as it is and, given the coincidence in time with the sheer foolishness and bungling and the outright official lies about Iraq, understanding the necessity of our (renewed) Afghan (and Pakistan) effort(s) might be obscured. I hope not and it's my hope, too, as Joint Chiefs Chair, Admiral Mullen, said this morning, that we have a solid shot at achieving what is important in Central Asia in not too long a time.

James Smith (guest)
flooring contractor , AZ:

With Obama in the White House, North Korea will get a new country out of its nuclear weapons ambitions. I just can't wait to see how many casualties it takes. I don't see him bombing anything but empty buildings that sit in an empty field. He will have to act and I am very curious to see how he does it.

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